Chicago Public Square 2018 07 19

This is the last Chicago Public Square Newscast for a while.

I'm Charlie Meyerson, and I created this thing.

As fun as it is, it takes a lot of time to produce and so we're going to take a summer break—partly to free more bandwidth for the main Chicago Public Square daily email and other new projects and partly to check that old saying about absence making the heart grow fonder.

If you'd like the newscast to return sooner rather than later, can convey your heart’s fondness rating via email to Newscast@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.

Regardless, you're always welcome at ChicagoPublicSquare.com, where you should definitely sign up to get news dispatches from the mothership daily—free. And follow Chicago Public Square on Facebook and Twitter for between-edition fixes.

For now: … on with the news.

Lots of gushing going on over Chance the Rapper's purchase of the dormant Chicagoist website from New York public radio station WNYC—a move he announced in a song called I might need security:

(( ))

The first headline on a Vanity Fair report of the deal was "Chance the Rapper Saves Chicago Journalism." But the magazine's scaled back that enthusiasm, so it reads "Chance the Rapper Stands Up for Chicago Journalism." Even that may need tweaking, depending on what he does next. The rest of the song makes clear Chance is no fan of a lot of journalism: The refrain is a soulful and melodic repetition of the phrase "fuck you"—and the part where he announces his purchase of Chicagoist makes clear those he aims to run out of business include legacy journalism organizations like Crain's and the Sun-Times.

And Mr. The Rapper hasn't always been a supporter of journalistic freedom: A 2017 article in Vulture explains  Chance successfully pressed MTV News to remove a review critical of a Chance performance.

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Add this to a list of things Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may have to answer for, at least from journalists. BuzzFeed News cites the company's internal documents and other sources as saying that, in the days after Donald Trump's election, Zuckerberg placed a secret, previously unreported call to the president-elect — congratulating Trump's team on its victory and a campaign that spent millions on Facebook ads. It says those documents also demonstrate that Facebook adapted Trump campaign methods to further refine the marketing model Facebook uses to assess its own advertising now.

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And, hey, stay out of Lake Michigan for a while. The National Weather Service is warning people through the weekend of potentially deadly rip currents—the kind of water flow hidden beneath calm surface waters, but capable of pulling you under and drowning you.

Be safe out there.

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I'm Charlie Meyerson. More news daily at ChicagoPublicSquare.com.